Vice
Versa was formed by Stephen Singleton and Mark White
in 1978. They asked Martin Fry to join them after Martin
had interviewed them for his fanzine Modern Drugs.
They
founded their own independent record label called Neutron
Records and produced their first single 'New Girls'.
Quote Stephen Singleton: "I remember going to the
Limit nightclub and going up to people saying - psss
do you want to buy one of these records." To their
own surprise the single became single of the week in
the NME.
Neutron records most important contribution to the scene
was the EP '1980 - The First 15 Minutes', which featured
four unsigned bands of Sheffield: ClockDVA, Vice Versa,
I´m so Hollow and the Stuntkites.
As Vice Versa they played a numerous amount of gigs.Their
first gig was with The Human League at the Now Society
at the Sheffield University and it was called 'What
no Drummers'. Memories of that night are included in
the film.
When
they went over to Holland on tour, they were invited
to jam in a studio in Rotterdam. Martin started to improvise
on vocals and everybody was surprised by the quality
of his voice. They decided to make him the lead singer
instead of Mark White and spent about a year writing
new songs, thinking of a new name and concept. The result
was ABC
Vice
Versa: 1978 - 1980.